Liberia receives US$11 million from the World Bank
Contacts
In Washington: Aby Toure (1+202) 473-8302
akonate@worldbank.org
In Accra: Kafu Kofi Tsikata (233-21) 229681
ktsikata@worldbank.org

WashingtonDC, May 13, 2008 – The World Bank today approved a US$11 million International Development Association (IDA) grant to the government
of Liberia to improve the efficiency and transparency in her financial and human resource management.

The Economic Governance and Institutional Reform Project (EGIRP), to be implemented over a three-year period, will focus on major and measurable
improvements in revenue administration, public procurement, budget execution and payroll management. It has two main components:

i)       Strengthening public financial management (US$8.5 million)

This component is intended to assist Liberia to address immediate technical assistance needs to consolidate gains in governance and institutional
reforms under the Governance and Economic Management Program (GEMAP), further strengthen public financial management processes and systems,
and facilitate graduation from the temporary remedial measures being implemented under it. This includes support for Liberia’s participation in the
Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), which is a global initiative aimed at improving governance in resource-rich countries through the
verification and full publication of company payments and government revenues from oil, gas and mining.

ii)      Supporting the Civil Service Reform Program ($2.5 million)

This component will support Liberia’s overall Civil Service Reform efforts, focusing particularly on (i) overhauling and reducing fraud in the payroll and
pensions system, as well as streamlining public sector recruitments systems (ii) training and rebuilding of skills in the civil service.

The objectives of this Project are in line with Liberia’s interim Poverty Reduction Strategy (iPRSP), which is build on four key pillars: (i) Security (ii)
Economic Revitalization; (iii) Governance and the Rule of Law; and (iv) Infrastructure and Basic Services.

According to Ohene Nyanin, the World Bank’s Country Manager for Liberia, “there are specific measurable targets that we seek to achieve before
or by the end of this project, including increasing the percentage of collected revenue as captured by the Integrated Tax Administration System by more
than 50%; reducing bureaucracy and the number of days it takes to approve procurement bid documents by at least 60%; cleaning the payroll and
eliminating “ghost names” completely, and enhancing parliamentary monitoring and evaluation by preparing annual statements of government accounts
for the legislative scrutiny.

Ishac Diwan, World Bank Country Director for Liberia, on his part, stresses the importance of adhering to agreed Extractive Industries
Transparency Initiative principles:

“It is lamentable that a country like Liberia, very rich in numerous natural resources, should be counted among the poorest of the poor. Sustained
efforts must be made to ensure that the proceeds from all these concessions, whether in extractive industries or forests, are maximized, and put to
good use, for the development of Liberia.”

                                                                              ###

                       For more information on the World Bank’s activities in sub-Saharan Africa visit: http://www.worldbank.org/afr

                            For more information on the World Bank’s activities in Liberia visit: http://web.worldbank.org/liberia

                                                      For more information on this project, please visit:
                                                Liberia Economic Governance & Institutional Reform Project